I wonder if they served him up with rice and veggies, or put him in the fridge for cold cut sandwiches later? It's stories like this that reinforce my opinion that the human race is_________________ Fill in your own conclusion! Pete

A “human steam” stunt in Kuala Sanglang went horribly wrong on Monday night when medium Lim Ba died after being placed inside a man-sized wok.

The 68-year-old had been inside for 30 minutes with a fire burning underneath him before his followers began hearing desperate knocks coming from inside. The steaming started at 10:00pm.

Lim’s son, Kang Huai, told The Star that the irregularity of the knocks indicated that something was awry, and they lifted the lid to find the mystic unconscious.

The incident occurred at a Nine Emperor God prayer session in honor of the Taoist celebration at a local Chinese temple.

Police ruled the cause of death was a heart attack, adding that Lim had sustained serious second-degree burns.

Kang Huai told reporters that his father had undergone a heart bypass surgery last year, and was also being treated for high blood pressure.

He added that along with his father, rice, sweet corn and vegetarian buns were being steamed as well.

Honestly speaking, in an already pretty wild and tragic story, the fact that there was food inside the wok as well is maybe the most mind-blowing.

Human-steaming was something that Lim had been performing over the last 10 years, despite on-going objections from his family. He had successfully performed it just recently at a Nine Emperor Gods celebration in nearby Perak.

His record inside the wok was 75-minutes, which is longer than most chicken-rice recipes.

Federation of Taoist Associations of Malaysia president Tan Hoe Chioew clarified that this type of ritual was divergent from mainstream Taoist rites, and was more of a fa shu (magic) performance, done to attract believers. It is not advisable to perform.

While this may be true, the Nine Emperor Gods Festival rituals celebrated in Thailand also include similar feats of visceral human endurance. Devotees mutilate their bodies, and stand near firecrackers while they’re lit, while in a trance-like state.

Our condolences to Lim’s family.

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source

I might just change supermarkets and help out the LHG by doing the weekly grocery shop (although the 450 odd mile round-trip may prove an obstacle )!!

Shoppers Can Now Buy Pints From a Bar Inside Morrisons

"You can now buy a pint while doing your weekly shop at the branch in Guiseley, near Leeds.
If all goes well then the supermarket could roll the scheme out across the country, and we could all be necking beers while trying to remember what’s on our shopping list. The bar, which is located at the café, will be known as Baritsa, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post.

At the moment you have a choice of several beverages, including the local Saltaire Blonde ale, wine and bottled cider and lager. A spokeswoman for the supermarket said: ‘Saltaire Blonde is a local brewery that’s really popular with customers. ‘We’re looking forward to hearing what customers think of our new cask pump.’ Leeds City Council has given Morrisons a modified off-license that allows it to sell alcohol from 6am to 12am" .

"You've got to get your first tackle in early, even if it's late". Ray Gravell

Not really a smart move. Shopper may be too drunk or too full to buy many groceries. It's proven that the best food shoppers are those who go into a store with an empty stomach. I've been guilty of that many times and came out with a higher grocery bill by a few thousand Baht. Pete

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source

Twelve vintage cannons, including one commissioned during the Napoleonic era, unearthed from the Naval Engineering Command compound are being honoured as "war veterans" for their role in protecting Thai territories hundreds of years ago.
Officials who retrieved the old cannons believed they were deployed in many battles which took place from the Thonburi period to the following early Rattanakosin era. The Rattanakosin era began in 1782 with Bangkok established as the capital.
"The cannons are regarded and revered as war veterans serving the nation and must be honoured in a religious ceremony," Naval Engineering Command chief Rear Adm Samai Chai-in said.

Deputy Prime Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn visited the spot where the cannons were found buried and instructed officials to conduct research to obtain a complete history of the weapons. He planned to display the weapons at a museum run by the Naval Engineering Command.

It took about a year to trace the history of the old cannons and finally dig up the first one, which an official stumbled across by chance during a construction project. The command later ordered the area to be excavated, leading to the discovery of the other buried cannons.

Some cannons were buried in a position that made their retrieval difficult. One of them, weighing five tonnes, had its barrel stuck about two metres deep in the soil.
"It was not an easy feat to lift it from the ground," Rear Adm Samai said.

This cannon, measuring 10m long with the barrel 25cm wide, was the largest of the 12 cannons discovered at the command. It is believed to have been made in England and sold acquired during the early Rattanakosin era. An emblem in the shape of an English crown convinced officers that it was cast by English engineers, he said.

Another is a medium-sized cannon believed to be commissioned in France during the Napoleonic era.
"We suppose [the medium-sized] cannon had been seized from the French by English soldiers after their victory," Rear Adm Samai said, adding the weapon was later sold to Thailand.

Of the 12 cannons, eight are believed to have been cast by Thais during the Thonburi era.
The Thonburi era was a time when Thailand encountered many wars, so a large number of weapons, including cannons typically made of bronze, were urgently needed, according to Rear Adm Samai. The cannons were cast in an area near Wat Rakhang on the west bank of the Chao Phraya.

This area -- in the vicinity of the residence of Phraya Mahakasatsuek, who later became King Rama I -- was later annexed by the Naval Engineering Command, Rear Adm Samai said. Because of this history, many cannons have been found there.

Experts who made an initial inspection of the cannons believe they had been attached to warships or riverside forts. Really? I would have thought that they had fallen off the Army Blimp!

May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!

Not really a smart move. Shopper may be too drunk or too full to buy many groceries. It's proven that the best food shoppers are those who go into a store with an empty stomach. I've been guilty of that many times and came out with a higher grocery bill by a few thousand Baht. Pete

It's common in continental Europe Pete, many of the big supermarkets here have a small bar in them. It's to give the husband something to do while the wife does the shopping!

NAKHON SAWAN: Local residents rushed to harvest the fresh meat after a passenger train from Chiang Mai ploughed into a herd of water buffaloes early Wednesday night, killing 21 of them.

Some of the train's wheels jumped the tracks during the multiple collisions, blocking the Chiang Mai-Nakhon Sawan line for several hours. The tracks were cleared and services resumed in the early hours of Thursday.

No passengers or crew were injured, only the buffaloes.

A local man contemplates a couple of the buffaloes. Local residents were quick to the scene to butcher the animals. (Photo by Chalit Pumruang)

The train had left Pak Nam Pho railway station and was about 2 kilometres short of Nakhon Sawan station when it ran into the middle of the herd as it wandered across the line.

A total of 21 buffaloes were killed, their bodies scattered alongside the tracks. The force of the crash caused four wheels of the train to derail. Ten railway sleepers were damaged.

The crash delayed the train for almost four hours as railway workers had to remove many dead buffaloes blocking the line, repair the sleepers and lift the train back on the rails.

So far, nobody has admitted ownership of the buffaloes.

Pol Maj Wichaiyut Kesornsit, of Nong Pling police station, said investigators had learned that the animals were from a buffalo farm in the area. However, the farm operator insisted they were not from there. Police were investigating.

On Thursday morning, many local residents were at the scene, butchering the carcasses of the dead buffaloes and taking home the meat.

May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!

It's deep into December and there's no snow in Thailand this year, yet!

I'll bet 100 Bitcoins it won't happen. But according to Thailand's national weather archives, it did snow once!

The only ever official (I use that word loosely) snow recorded in Thailand was in Chiang Rai on 7th January 1955 (see the picture below).

According to the notice on this picture, the snow (sort of) came after rainfall at 6pm.

This event was well documented by locals and officially covered by local papers, The story has been passed down through generations

The story goes that there after the rain came hail, which produced a snow-like blanket on the ground. You have to admit, the ground does look white and fluffy.

This remained for about 14 hours until it began to melt away.

Sadly, 18 hours later, the snow had disappeared.

This story is fiercely contested by snow geeks who say the “snow” was formed by hail and therefore doesn't constitute a proper snowfall. However, residents beg to differ and proudly boast of their claim to snow fame.

Snow or not, this is as close as you're going to get to it in Thailand, because this is the one and only time it has ever happened.

It does look a lot like snow in the picture though, doesn't it?

snow-in-thailand-1955.jpg (71.94 KiB) Viewed 163 times

Those who live in the North will know that it does get pretty chilly come December-February. The lowest temperature ever recorded for Chiang Rai is 2°C, about 35°F.

Heavy dew is quite common up North and frost on leaves and vegetation in the very high grounds is sometimes reported late in the year.

Bangkok doesn't get that cold by a long shot. It hit its coldest record in 30 years on January 23rd 2014, when the temperature fell to 15.6°C – not really that cold compared with Western climates, but quite a shock for the residents who are used to more like 30°C year-round.

The lowest ever recorded temperature in Bangkok was 9.9°C (49.8 °F) in January 1955, which coincidentally was the same year snow fell in Chiang Rai.

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source

Did It Really Snow in Thailand in 1955? (The Truth Revealed)The lowest ever recorded temperature in Bangkok was 9.9°C (49.8 °F) in January 1955, which coincidentally was the same year snow fell in Chiang Rai.

I wouldn't describe it as a coincidence, just sounds like a bad winter in Thailand!

I've never seen hail stay on the ground to form actual drifts like in the top picture, the bottom picture looks more typical of hail that's settled. Top one really looks like snow to me.

"NAKHON PATHOM — A tugboat driver was hit with a minor fine Thursday morning after his vessel smashed into a bridge and made it collapse.

The bridge in front of Wat Thaiyawat across the Thai Chin River in Nakhon Pathom province completely collapsed after Sumet Tappandee, 35, lost control of the soybean-carrying tugboat and rammed it into one of its pillars.

The operator said he was sailing from Ko Sichang to deliver a shipment to an oil factory when the engine shut off and the rudder stopped working, causing the boat to smash into the bridge."...........

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source